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^actors  Underlying  the 

Leadership  of  the 
Railways  of  America 


BY  JOHN  R.  MOTT 


Factors  Underlying  the 

Leadership  of  the 

Railways  of  America 


By  John  R.  Mott 


An  Address  given  at  the 

HOTEl,    COMMODORE,     NEW     YORK 

JUNE  16,  1922 


<4 


0'^ 


FACTORS     UNDERLYING     THE 
LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  RAIL- 
WAYS OF  AMERICA 

By  John  R.  Mott 

An  Address  Given  at  the  Hotel  Commo- 
dore, New  York,  June  16,  1922 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  Gentlemen:  I 
value  highly  the  privilege  of 
meeting  in  an  intimate  way  with 
this  company  of  men  of  wide  outlook,  of 
large  achievement  and  of  proved  respon- 
siveness to  the  highest  ideals  and  pur- 
poses. As  the  Chairman  has  indicated, 
it  has  been  my  lot  to  devote  much  of  my 
life  abroad  as  well  as  here  in  America 
to  traveling  work.  I  find  myself,  there- 
fore, always  at  home  in  the  midst  of 
railway  men,  having  spent  now  nearly 
thirty-five  years  in  almost  incessant  travel 
among  the  nations.  I  am  prepared  to 
appreciate  sympathetically  as  well  as  with 

—  3  — 


my'whOle'mirid'Va^'entthe  finer  aspects 
of  this  work  in  honor  of  which  we  meet 
today,  and  also  lying  back  of  that,  the 
work  of  the  railways  themselves.  Every 
time  I  come  back  from  a  foreign  journey, 
whether  from  the  Orient,  or  from  the 
western  nations,  or  from  those  that  lie 
south  of  us,  I  have  a  deepened  sense  of 
appreciation  of  the  unique  and  stupen- 
dous service  rendered  by  the  railways  of 
America  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  life  of 
our  nation. 

It  is  due  to  the  railways  that  we  have 
had  the  almostunbelievable  development 
of  the  vast  material  resources  of  the 
American  continent.  It  is  due  to  the  rail- 
way service,  and  this  is  often  overlooked, 
that  there  has  been  facilitated  so  largely 
the  nation-wide  dissemination  of  intelli- 
gence as  well  as  the  physical  and  social 
well-being  of  the  American  people. 
Likewise,  the  railways  have  done  more 
than  any  other  one  factor  to  promote  the 
unity  of  the  nation.  Just  as  the  Civil  War 
fused    together    forever    the    American 


States  politically,  so  the  ceaseless  shuttling 
of  the  railways  has  made  possible  and 
done  much  to  realize  the  social  unifica- 
tion and  the  real  spiritual  solidarity  of 
our  strongly  sectional  and  markedly  cos- 
mopolitan population.  How  much  that 
means  only  those  of  us  fully  appreciate 
who  travel  widely  over  the  land.  More- 
over, the  American  people  do  not  realize 
the  great  contribution  of  our  railways  in 
preventing  some  of  the  great  ills  and 
perils  that  have  well  nigh  undone  other 
nations  and  have  actually  brought  on 
some  of  the  greatest  calamities  of  man- 
kind. 

When  on  my  recent  visit  to  China  I 
heard  of  the  terrible  havoc  and  suffering 
caused  by  the  famine,  I  said,  "How  much 
of  this  might  have  been  prevented  by  an 
adequate  railway  service."  When  in  In- 
dia I  have  found,  even  under  the  match- 
less administration  of  Britain,  how  great 
famines  at  times  still  obtain  among  the 
three  hundred  millions  of  Hindustan,  and 
have  said,  "What  would  not  be  the  situ- 

—  5-— 


ation  were  it  not  for  the  railways  they 
have,  and  what  is  not  a  widely  extending 
country  saved  by  having  an  adequate  rail- 
way system?"  When  I  was  in  Russia  in 
the  summer  of  1917  with  my  good  friend 
General  Scott,  sent  by  the  President  as 
members  of  the  Root  Mission,  and  we 
saw  the  crumbling  of  the  Russian  Army 
and  the  rise  of  Bolshevism,  we  recognized 
that  the  principal  thing  which  made  this 
great  catastrophe  possible  was  the  break- 
down of  the  means  of  communication. 
The  reason  why  we  have  had  to  pour  tens 
of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  provisions 
into  Russia  this  year  to  save  them  from 
starvation,  and  the  reason  why  the  great 
political  distemper  of  Bolshevism,  like 
a  malignant  disease,  still  eats  its  way  into 
the  heart  of  Russia,  is  because  of  insuf- 
ficient transportation. 

Think  also  of  the  great  contribution  of 
American  railways  in  opening  in  the  rail- 
way service  boundless  opportunity  to  suc- 
cessive millions  of  men  for  useful  work 
and  for  advancement.    Our  railways  con- 

—  6  — 


stitute  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  great- 
est, school  of  democracy  we  have. 

Why  is  it  that  the  American  railways 
hold  the  primacy  among  the  railroad 
systems  of  the  nations?  It  is  a  fact  fa- 
miliar to  those  present  that  America  has 
practically  one-half  of  the  railway  mile- 
age of  the  entire  world.  That,  however, 
is  not  what  impresses  us  so  much  as  the 
causes  which  have  given  the  railways  of 
America  their  unique  distinction  and 
great  achieving  power. 

What  are  some  of  the  factors  which 
have  made  the  American  railways  great 
and  given  them  leadership  among  the 
railway  systems  of  the  world?  I  may  be 
far  afield  but  I  think  one  of  the  factors 
has  been  the  spaciousness  of  the  oppor- 
tunity. They  had  a  vast  continent  thrust 
upon  them  to  be  opened,  settled,  subdued 
and  developed.  There  was  something 
about  this  which  appealed  powerfully  to 
the  imagination  and  also  to  the  adven- 
turous and  heroic  in  strong  men.  It 
served  to  call  out  the  best  that  was  in 

—  7  — 


them.  Someone  might  say,  "Is  there  not 
a  great  continent  in  Africa  ?  What  about 
Siberia  which  is  nearly  three  times  the 
size  of  Canada  or  the  United  States?" 
Yes,  their  day  will  come,  and  I  predict 
that  the  very  spaciousness  of  those  vast 
areas,  which  grew  upon  me  as  I  made  my 
long  journeys  over  them,  will  yet  chal- 
lenge some  of  the  greatest  minds  and  re- 
lease the  latent  energies  not  only  of  the 
Russian  people  but  also  of  other  nations 
whose  cooperation  they  must  have. 

The  admitted  leadership  of  American 
railways  may  also  be  explained  by  the 
freedom  which  they  have  had  to  evolve 
plans  and  project  them  through  the  dec- 
ades, notwithstanding  embarrassing  and 
harassing  restrictive  legislation — legis- 
lation which  in  its  practical  effects  or 
outworking  has  often  proved  to  have  been 
unpatriotic.  When  we  contrast  the  de- 
velopments on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic 
with  those  in  the  European  nations  and 
even  more  with  those  in  Latin  America — 
we  recognize  that  we  have  had  a  measure 

—  8  — 


of  libertythat  has  made  possibleour  show- 
ing what  railways  can  do  and  how  they 
can  serve  the  interests  of  a  great  people. 

Another  factor  that  explains  the  great- 
ness of  our  railways  has  been  the  emi- 
nent leadership  which  these  enterprises 
have  had.  I  make  bold  to  say  that  there 
is  no  work  in  America  or  in  any  other 
country  which  has  called  out  among  men 
more  power  of  vision,  more  capacity  for 
initiative,  more  organizing  ability,  that 
is,  the  ability  to  wield  and  combine  men, 
than  has  the  leadership  of  the  railway 
systems  of  this  country. 

Undoubtedly  another  cause  has  been 
not  only  the  power  of  mentality  and  per- 
sonality to  which  I  have  called  attention, 
but  likewise  the  money  power.  What 
undertaking  in  America  or  in  any  other 
nation  has  had  so  largely  poured  out 
upon  it  the  great  energies  of  capital,  not 
only  of  the  rich  but  also  of  what  we 
might  call  associated  poverty.  What 
project  have  we  today  that  is  more  truly 
American? 


Then  I  like  to  add  another  factor  that 
has  made  us  forge  to  the  front.  That  has 
been  our  power  to  cooperate.  I  remem- 
ber the  discerning  remark  of  Senator 
Root,  "You  may  judge  the  degree  of  ad- 
vancement of  a  nation's  civilization  by 
its  ability  to  cooperate  with  other 
nations."  This  is  just  as  true  of  com- 
panies as  it  is  of  nations.  Judging  by 
this  test,  the  railway  companies  of  this 
country  have  evolved  into  a  high  stage 
of  advancement  and  present  an  example 
of  which  we  may  be  proud.  We  all  re- 
member the  days  of  keen  and  remorse- 
less competition,  even  unto  warfare.  It 
sometimes  had  its  advantages  in  calling 
out  the  latent  capacities  of  men  and 
companies;  but  we  have  evolved,  I  re- 
peat, into  that  state  where  railways,  not- 
withstanding centrifugal  energies,  have 
shown  their  ability  to  cooperate  with  one 
another,  and,  what  I  sometimes  think  is 
even  more  striking,  have  developed  un- 
usual capacities  of  cooperation  inter- 
nally. When  we  think  of  troubles  between 

—  10  — 


companies  and  men  we  may  at  times  feel 
depressed,  and  wonder  whether  or  not 
this  point  is  true,  but  if  we  contrast  what 
we  have  here  with  what  they  have  in 
certain  other  nations,  we  shall  find  abun- 
dant ground  for  encouragement  and  hope. 

Were  I  to  mention  another  factor,  it 
would  be  to  emphasize  the  general  char- 
acter and  spirit  of  the  men  in  the  service 
from  top  to  bottom.  I  do  not  wonder 
that  you  are  proud  of  this  service.  Nor 
do  I  wonder  that  the  thing  that  causes  us 
most  solicitude  is  the  fact  that  at  times 
we  are  conscious  that  there  is  not  the 
desired  solidarity,  or  the  sense  of  the 
solidarity  that  does  exist.  This  leads  us 
right  into  the  heart  of  what  has  brought 
us  here  today. 

Among  the  influences  that  have  made 
possible  the  remarkable  personnel  of  the 
American  railway  systems  is  the  work  of 
the  Railroad  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association.  It  deserves  to  be  ranked 
very  high  indeed  if  we  may  judge  by  the 
testimony  of  the  railway  officials.    What 


ii- 


agency  has  begun  to  do  as  much  to  pro- 
mote right  character,  right  relationships, 
and  right  spirit  among  the  men  in  the 
varied  services  as  has  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association? 

The  word  that  I  suppose  we  heard  most 
frequently  in  the  war  was  the  word 
"morale."  You  will  remember  the  dic- 
tum of  Napoleon  that  morale  is  to  other 
factors  in  war  as  three  to  one.  The  World 
War  was  a  war  of  morales.  You  will 
recall  that  Hindenburg  in  the  early  days 
of  the  war  said  that  the  victory  would 
ultimately  be  achieved  by  the  nation  that 
had  the  strongest  nerves.  I  do  not  like 
that  word  as  well  as  I  like  the  word 
"morale"  which  represents,  as  I  see  it, 
the  spirit  of  the  men. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  remind  our- 
selves of  what  it  was  that  at  times  tended 
to  destroy  the  morale  of  men  in  the 
armies.  War-tiredness  in  some  cases  was 
the  cause;  again  it  was  idleness;  at  other 
times  it  was  uncertainty  or  doubt;  and 
not  infrequently  it  was  what  we  called 

—  12  — 


enemy  propaganda.  These  were  among 
the  principal  influences.  On  the  other 
hand,  what  were  the  causes  that  contrib- 
uted most  powerfully  to  the  building  up 
and  maintaining  of  high  morale?  As  I 
answer  this  question  my  answer  will  con- 
stitute in  some  respects  the  best  outline  I 
could  give  of  the  work  of  the  Railroad 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  be- 
cause what  this  organization  is  striving 
to  do  along  railway  lines  of  the  country 
is  to  promote  the  right  morale,  that  is  the 
right  character,  attitude  and  spirit  of  the 
men.  I  would,  therefore,  ask  the  ques- 
tion again :  What  were  the  factors  in  the 
war  that  did  most  to  maintain  and 
strengthen  morale?  One  of  them  un- 
doubtedly was  the  promotion  of  the  phys- 
ical comfort  of  the  men.  I  do  not  need 
to  fill  in  what  you  will  find  in  these  pages 
[referring  to  a  pamphlet  on  the  table]. 
That  is  one  of  the  great  objects  of  the 
Railroad  Association.  When  you  think 
what  it  does  with  its  dormitories,  restau- 
rants,   rest  rooms,    athletic    features,    its 

—  13  — 


homelike  lounges,  you  understand  what 
we  mean  by  the  physical  comfort  of  the 
men.  A  second  factor  that  contributed 
to  morale  was  the  mental  and  heart  con- 
tentment of  the  men.  Again  you  will  re- 
call vividly  the  entertainments,  the  lec- 
tures, the  reading  rooms  of  the  army  Y. 
huts  and  of  the  Railroad  Y.  buildings  at 
terminal  and  division  points,  and  you  rec- 
ognize the  full  force  of  this  point. 

The  right  use  of  the  leisure  hours  had 
very  much  to  do  with  preserving  and 
strengthening  morale.  I  trace  nineteen- 
twentieths  of  the  troubles  among  young 
men  to  unaccounted-for  hours — some- 
times an  evening  off,  sometimes  a  day, 
sometimes  a  week-end.  It  is  to  these  va- 
cant hours  that  I  trace  the  lapses  and  falls 
of  men.  We  cannot  well  overstate  the 
importance  of  a  program  such  as  that  of 
the  Association  to  occupy  usefully  the 
vacant  spaces  in  the  time  of  men. 

Another  thing  that  contributed  much 
to  feeding  the  morale  of  men  in  the  war 
was  the  opportunity  the  Association  af- 

—  14  — 


forded  them  to  change  their  minds.  After 
spending  long  days  and  nights  in  the 
trenches,  or  after  being  on  the  battlefield 
where  they  witnessed  scenes  and  had  ex- 
periences which  they  would  fain  forget, 
or  after  the  irksome  routine  of  camp  life, 
to  be  able  to  go  into  a  bright  and  cheerful 
room  and  mingle  with  their  fellows  and 
converse  with  the  men  and  women  work- 
ers in  charge  and  enjoy  the  diverting 
games  and  uplifting  ministries  to  mind 
and  spirit,  was  the  means  of  transform- 
ing their  whole  mental  outlook. 

Another  influence  that  made  for  morale 
was  the  consciousness  the  men  had  that 
they  were  not  forgotten,  that  the  people 
back  at  home — the  citizens  of  their  native 
land — believed  in  them,  were  indeed  in- 
terested in  them,  and  followed  them  there, 
not  simply  through  government  taxes  but 
through  such  welfare  organizations  as  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Tens  of  millions  were  contributed  for  Y. 
huts,  equipment  and  facilities.  The 
same  influence  is  exerted  by  the  Railroad 

—  15  — 


Y.  with  its  generous  backing  from  the 
companies  and  their  stockholders  and 
friends. 

The  secretarial  leadership  of  this  work 
has  also  had  a  profound  influence.  I 
can  speak  freely  on  this  point  because  I 
am  not  known  technically  as  a  Railroad 
Secretary.  But  I  know  these  secretaries 
and  how  they  have  spent  themselves  and 
how  they  count  it  a  high  honor  to  be  of 
service  to  the  railway  men.  They  have 
helped  immeasurably,  in  my  judgment,  to 
keep  alive  the  ideals  that  have  done  so 
much  to  feed  the  spirit  and  maintain  the 
morale  of  the  men. 

Let  me  emphasize  as  a  chief  factor  the 
ministry  of  pure  religion,  the  religion 
that  St.  James  spoke  of,  pure  and  unde- 
filed,  which  is  being  exemplified,  lived 
and  communicated  in  the  religious  pro- 
gram of  these  Associations.  What  did 
this  not  mean  to  men  going  into  battles; 
what  has  it  not  meant  to  men  since  in  the 
more  difficult  period  following  the  Ar- 
mistice; what  has  it  meant  to  millions 

—  16  — 


of  men  in  the  railroad  service,  who 
through  these  Associations  have  come 
under  the  wonderful,  superhuman  influ- 
ence of  Jesus  Christ. 

Well,  therefore,  may  we  today,  on  the 
turning  of  the  fiftieth  milestone  of  the 
work  of  the  Railroad  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  pay  our  tribute  to 
this  nation-wide,  beneficent,  efficient  and 
fruitful  organization.  It  has  accom- 
plished a  great  work.  With  its  hundreds 
of  Associations,  with  its  scores  of  thou- 
sands of  members,  with  its  large  property 
interests  of  many  millions,  with  the  back- 
ing of  nearly  every  railway  company  of 
importance  in  the  land,  with  the  wide 
outreach  of  its  influence  to  other  lands,  it 
is  on  the  threshold  of  vastly  greater 
achievements. 

If  I  were  to  mention  another  great  re- 
sult that  has  been  achieved  and  is  being 
increasingly  achieved,  next  to  its  influ- 
ence on  the  character  and  spirit  of  the 
men,  I  would  speak  of  the  unifying  power 
of  the  Railroad  Young  Men's  Christian 

—  17  — 


Association.  In  these  recent  fateful  and 
tragic  years  we  have  witnessed  an  alarm- 
ing development  and  manifestation  of  the 
divisive  forces  of  mankind.  I  sometimes 
think  the  greatest  problem  before  us  for 
the  next  fifteen  years  is  the  racial  prob- 
lem. Not  only  the  divisive  tendencies 
among  the  races  but  among  the  nations. 
Nor  would  I  overlook  another  great  di- 
visive tendency — that  in  the  social  and 
industrial  order.  The  conflict  is  on. 
What  does  it  not  mean  that  we  have  an 
organization  which  for  fifty  years  has 
shown  its  ability,  as  no  other  society  with 
which  I  am  familiar,  to  unite  in  one 
membership,  one  program,  and  one  ob- 
jective, the  employers  and  employes,  and 
this  in  a  voluntary  and  not  an  obligatory 
way,  with  the  largest  possible  freedom  of 
expression  and  action,  and,  therefore,  en- 
suring the  finest  and  most  effective  co- 
operation? What  has  it  not  meant?  I 
am  not  surprised  that  the  other  great 
industries  of  the  world  have  finally  been 
convinced  after  watching  for  years  this 

—  18  — 


practice  game  of  the  Railroad  Y.,  and 
now  we  cannot  keep  up  with  their  de- 
mand for  the  extension  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  work  on  the 
railway  Association  model  to  their  in- 
dustries. Nor  should  we  wonder  that 
industrial  leaders  in  Europe  and  in  Asia 
have  requested  that  we  send  experts  to 
study  their  fields  at  first  hand,  and  to  plan 
agencies  and  facilities  for  their  service. 
Discerning  observers  recognize  afresh  the 
stabilizing  and  steady  guiding  power  of 
this  great  work. 

In  a  time  of  strain  like  the  present,  it 
assumes  added  meaning  and  importance. 
To  my  mind,  we  are  summoned  at  a  mo- 
ment like  this  to  expand  greatly  our  plans. 
There  are  some  things  on  which  we  have 
to  call  time,  but  this  is  not  one  of  them. 
This  is  one  of  the  projects  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  that  should  be  expanded 
until  the  helpful  network  of  the  organi- 
zation is  spread  much  more  intimately 
over  all  classes  of  men  throughout  all  the 
railways  of  America.     We  want  to  keep 

—  19  — 


in  mind  what  the  French  call  "grand 
strategy."  By  grand  strategy  they  mean 
that  which  takes  in  the  whole  map — all 
the  fronts.  As  I  look  over  our  great 
American  republic  and  notice  the  spaces 
that  are  without  these  facilities  and  with- 
out the  helpful  working  of  these  vital 
and  steadying  processes,  I  say  let  us  have 
grand  strategy  that  takes  in  every  railway 
system  in  its  entirety.  To  this  end  we 
must  expand  greatly  the  resources  for  this 
work.  So  far  as  I  can  see  there  is  no 
more  highly  multiplying  use  of  money 
right  now  than  that  of  relating  it  to  these 
plans,  to  influence  aright  the  ideals,  the 
character,  the  spirit,  the  efficiency,  the 
relationships,  the  output  of  the  men  to 
whom  we  commit  such  unparalleled  in- 
terests of  property  and  of  human  life. 


—  20  — 


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